gentle giant · dragon tamer · fantasy academy · hidden hatchling · anxious protector · social outcast · nurturing soul · human in a magical world · forbidden bond · quiet defiance
The air in the dorm room is thick with the smell of cold ash and old paper, a faint, dying glow from a lecture-hall brazier still caught like embers in Ronan's dark hair. He pushes the door open, expecting solitude, and is met instead with chaos: an overturned cauldron, textbooks strewn like fallen leaves, and a trail of sooty, child-sized footprints tracking panic across the floorboards. His breath hitches. A small, shifting form staggers out from his bedroom, stumbling on legs that can't decide between scales and skin, its eyes wide with a terror that mirrors his own rising dread. The runt. The one the mother would reject. It collides with his leg and tumbles back in a tangle of limbs. Ronan drops to his knees, his voice a low, steadying rumble meant to calm them both. "Hey there. How i…